“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children.”
(Deuteronomy 4:9)
The preeminent duty of every Christian parent is to instruct their children in the Word and will of God. “Teach a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he shall not depart from it,” (Prov. 22:6). And Deuteronomy 11:19 elaborates, “You shall teach [my commandments] to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
However, the prerequisite for teaching your children the ways of God is to “keep your [own] soul diligently,” which is the first part of the verse in Deuteronomy 4:9. And Deuteronomy 11:18 mirrors that requirement, “You shall therefore impress these words of Mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.”
You can’t teach what you don’t know, and you can’t expect your children to listen and take you seriously when you try to instill scriptural principles in their life that you don’t model in your own. We are individually responsible for the condition of our heart before God. But as a parent we bear responsibility to teach our children the ways of God as well.
Further, the consequences of neglecting our own spiritual growth and maturity extend beyond us to our children. If we do not “walk in the paths of righteousness,” we may well be contributing to a lack of spiritual blessing, protection, and direction for our children.
What kind of Christian parent are you likely to be if you do not attend to your own spiritual growth? How are your children to be protected from evil influences and guided in the ways of truth if you fail in that duty? How will your family be governed in the ways of God if you do not watch over your own soul? How will they adore God if you don’t?
Look first to your own spiritual development. Keep your heart with all diligence, for you are responsible before God to teach your children to adore Christ all the days of their life. And you cannot spiritually care for those under your charge if you do not keep your own heart with all diligence.
- Lord, the children of the church are the future of the church. How diligent are we all to teach and instruct them in the ways You have set down? Are the families in our church diligently teaching their children daily in Your Word? Help us to see that we have strong homes and godly lives that we may glorify and adore You all our days.
- If I am to be a godly influence in my family, Lord, help me to consider my words and my behaviors, whether they are good or evil, whether they are holy or sinful. Have I taken the way of lying, the way of coveting, the way of pride, taken some careless and worldly way? Help me to examine and determine whether the way I live pleases You or grieves You.
- How thorough am I to do Your will consistently, Lord? Do I simply read a chapter with my family every day or so from the Bible, but never lead the family in prayer or praises to You together? Help me keep my heart diligently in all these things, that I might teach my family to do the same, so that, in turn, from generation to generation we may be blessed of the Lord.
Further References for Deut. 4:9
Deut. 11:19, 6:7, 4:23; Gen. 18:19; Prov. 4:23; Eph. 6:4
